


Mr. William King

by kingfully



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-04 11:47:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4136292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingfully/pseuds/kingfully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when Shepard's parents ask to meet her boyfriend, W. King? Did anyone mention king in Latin is "Rex"?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mr. William King

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Annie but also for me. Not part of Kids and Superstitious. I was a little dizzy while writing this so if there are mistakes or confusions, please let me know! Too many Shepards.

"Mom, you're too close to the camera."

"What? Jane I can't see you."

"Mom, c'mon! Didn't you grow up with this stuff? Even Nana knew how to do this. She called it... 'Skip', I think."

"Why do you think I always send you written messages? And don't compare me to that fossil, the woman died without meeting an alien; how's that for inept!" Shepard was grateful her mother couldn't see her roll her eyes, as if she was a teenager again. "Hold on, let me get the VI."

Shepard sighed and leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling of her captain's cabin, clawing slightly at her own face. It's not that she hated her mother, no, never! The old woman simply was time out of the day where Shepard needed to prepare for more bullshit with Cerberus or, ya know, maybe talk with Wrex instead. Oh god how awful. The Commander had already bothered the Krogan ten times that month alone, with movie dates (you'll never guess the sucker for romance flicks; hint: it's Wrex) and the one time Shepard stripped awkwardly for him. Said night was her favorite regardless; he spent hours studying her foreign body, never seen previously without her armor. Her body shivered under his usual unwavering stare, not to mention how cold she already kept her cabin, yet his praise of her battle scars warmed her, eliciting many stories from the both of them. How odd, he mentioned it, for her to seem so soft and fragile and... fleshy, but the map of her skin proved her far from it. A lovely sight for centuries-old sore eyes, he added, and Shepard found herself blushing deeply as she recalled the memory upon her mother's reappearance.

"Jane! Are you sick? Why do you look so red?" Shepard's head snapped up, eyes blinking with an odd smile forming on her lips that faded fast. Being caught in the middle of such a memory roused her blood more and she stumbled over "um"s and "huh"s and "w-well"s. It wasn't until her daughter gave a nervous laugh of infatuation and twirled a strand of hair around her finger that Hannah Shepard knew exactly what was going on. "Hun, you have a boyfriend, don't you?"

"What? Mom, no, that's absurd. I don't have time for tha-"

"Is it Kaidan? You mentioned the two of you caught up recently at Horizon." She quickly interrupted, excited though feeling her daughter could certainly do better, should it be him.

"Ew, no, it's not Kaidan! I mean- no, it's not anyone!"

"Aha! So it's someone, even if not Kaidan! What about those Cerberus people? Jason?" Shepard couldn't bother to correct her with Jacob's actual name, instead rushing to cover her face as if it would save her the embarrassment. "Didn't you say Miranda was pretty but a handful? You know you like those types. Wouldn't be enough to just have a sane significant other, trust me I of all people should know."

"Miranda's not my girlfriend either. N-no one is."

"It's okay to be gay, Jane."

"I'm not- none of that is relevant!"

"Hm, you're dating an alien? Is it Liara? Asari just seem the most compatible with humans if you ask me. I wonder if due to their gender constructs what it would mean of our own sexualities. Oh, but that all stopped mattering centuries ago, you know." Her head bobbed, singing along to the "Okay To Be Gay" song that had spread like wildfire on the extranet while her daughter continued to have an exaggerated mental breakdown.

"Mom, can we not do this today? Please."

"Sweetheart, is it Garrus? Tali? Although I imagined them to get together eventually, though perhaps I've seen Fleet and Flotilla one too many times." Again her daughter could only sigh deeply in response, thinking of how she got over the movie years ago. "Oh, Jane, don't tell me it's... Grunt." Oh.  
  
"W-what? I mean it's not but why?" Oh no oh no oh no. Her parents would never be okay with a Krogan. What would she tell Wrex? Not like he'd care exactly and not as if they could stop her. But she loved her parents and respected them and-

"Well, you know. He's... well... you know. Young and... reckless. The way Krogan are. I suppose it's not a big deal if you find a gentle one but they are, and naturally so, very rough. Too rough, for us, for humans. They could kill you on accident I'm sure. But it's not him either, is it?"

The younger Shepard stared down at a piece of paper she had jotted down Wrex's name over and over again, attempting to come up with a reasonable name as she knew her mother wouldn't let her wriggle out of this one. W... Rex. W... "William, uh, King. His name is William King." Lie One. "But we haven't been going out for very long." Lie Two. "It's nothing special." Lie Three.

But she's not out. "Oh Jane oh Jane oh Jane! You have to let us meet him! I'll call your father, we can meet at Nana's old home on Mars! That isn't too far, right? I'm sure you can make the time for us and him too, please, please, please?" The older woman squealed like a school girl as the Commander began to fret, quickly trying to wave it off.

"No, no, none of that's necessary, I was thinking of breaking up with him anyway!"

"Don't do that! Honey we never get to meet the people you're dating before you do that. I'm pretty sure you do it just to avoid them meeting us but... we promise we'll be good! I'll call your dad, love you Hun, I'll message you the details and see you across the galaxy! Mwah!" End call.

Oops.

 

* * *

 

"So my parents want to meet you." Shepard mumbled painfully over the video chat. She remained thankful for her ever unflinching boyfriend, his lack of reaction to everything bringing relief. And for her mother to think all Krogan are "reckless". Yet it was obvious that he was unsure of what to think of the situation, probably evaluating the meaning of such a meeting.

"Do they wish to kill me?"

"What?! No! Why would they do that?"

Wrex huffed and turned his head to the left, seeming embarrassed by his incorrect guess at human interaction. "Well the last time my father wished to meet me, he tried to kill me." The female couldn't help but sigh softly and rub her arm tentatively. To be fair, plenty of other human parents had a history of doing crazy things, too. Like Nana. Nana would've dated a Krogan; her mom was being unfair. And racist, probably.

"My parents don't want to kill you Wrex. I kinda told them we're together but there's something I didn't tell them."

"You forgot to mention something important, didn't you?" _Stupid, smart dinosaur_.

"I didn't forget this time, for your information. And I may have left out an important detail on purpose. I may have told them.. you'reahuman."

Wrex appeared as disappointed as Wrex could, and to anyone else it was hard to imagine he wasn't made of stone, carved with a permanent expression of discontent. "Shepard."

"Wrex?" A shy smile spread across her lips as her brows raised in unison.

"I think you're trying to get me killed."

 

* * *

 

 

After several galactic weeks of attempting to dodge the dinner with her parents, Shepard found herself on the southern hemisphere of Mars, at the bubble home her grandmother had lived in. Within the bubble, the house there had an 'Earth ranch' style, yet the protective layer outside destroyed this fantasy, along with the barren red lands of the planet. Yet of all places, Shepard excitedly hoped Mars would appeal to Wrex in it's subtle similarities to Tuchanka.

Since the time her and her mother had their first video call, more and more came, sometimes focusing on the ever mysterious William King, sometimes on Shepard's daily duties. Thane, the most recent recruit, proved himself imaginative with silly facts to give to the human based off the Krogan, but he wasn't the only one. Joker ("God Bless His Stupid Soul", as Nana would say,) accidentally let word out over the com of the Normandy, and even Grunt came bustling around with ideas of his own after meeting Wrex. Shepard gave up on trying to hide anything yet maintained her professional air, staying silent when Jack questioned what it was like to fuck a Krogan. Straight forth and crude, as always.

These same little lies humored Wrex over other calls, and his pleasure made Shepard smile too much to let him down that William King was probably the nerdiest name she had come up with off the top of her head.

Meanwhile, fed by the information crafted by the one and only Normandy crew, Hannah and James Shepard prepared for Mr. William King's arrival. The _human_  was a man of few words and a politician, which one could argue Wrex was, despite these being ideas to get him out of the dinner in the first place. He grew up in a colony and had never seen Earth. He was highly respected for his combat abilities and even with his beefy appearance, was always gentle with Jane Shepard. A tough, guarded man with a heart soft as pillows.

"Thane, wait, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Are you writing a romance novel?" Shepard remembered asking the Drell previously.

A tough, guarded man with a heart of gold.

"How cliche."

Atoughguardedman who loved Shepard with his whole heart.

And such was enough for her parents.

Shepard stood awkwardly, fiddling with the silver necklace around her neck, staring down at her tight fitting black dress as her parents arrived outside next to her to wait as the ship was incoming. Sure, the Savior of the Citadel wasn't so much worried about her parents as she was about, you know, her _boyfriend_  laughing at her out of armor, though it dawned on her that now was a time as best as any to confess, the ship approaching steadily from the distance.

"Mom. Dad. I have something to tell you."

"Yes princess?" She hated when her father called her that.

"Um, my boyfriend- his name isn't William King." The older couple turned to each other in confusion. The ship was gently landing, the rockets easing it to the ground kicking up dirt and causing an atmosphere around it made of loud noises.

"What? Jane-"

"And he's not human, either!" Shepard began to shout, trying to speak over the landing. An unexpected grin had taken over half of her expression out of excitement to see Wrex for the first time in a too long of time, yet her parents couldn't manage to fake the same excitement after the revelation.

"Wait, why did you lie?"

"I don't remember!" And it was true; at that moment Shepard couldn't fathom why she'd lie about the Krogan who had swept up her heart, and turned as raddling ship doors began to creak open. "Wrex!"

Perhaps what happened next could've been described as the strangest and equally cheesiest thing the Shepards had ever seen their daughter do; running excitedly up to the arms of a mostly crimson colored Krogan, his expression hard to read though his own excitement just as obvious as he had picked her up and swung her around, cradling her in his arms. The young woman didn't even care as her dress was ripped near the end on the sides, receiving an apology from her one and only, soothing him with how it looked more fashionable now anyway.

Climbing down from the mountain that was the alien, the Commander roughly took his arm and dragged him forth. Her mother's face was pale as the Earth's moon, and slowly, Jane began to remember why she had lied. "Oh, yeah... Mom?"

"H-he big. I mean- he's huge. I mean, hello, William? Or should I say... not William?" The older woman paused, eyes flickering from the beastly sized being to her husband. They gave each other the brows, each begging for the other to speak first in order to settle the air. Their daughter appeared oblivious, though happy, thoughtlessly holding onto the Krogan with a goofy smile locked in her face.

"Shepard." The monster- no, no, just a Krogan- began. "And Shepard." It appeared he had been addressing _them_ , and it caused Jane to break out into one of her obnoxious laughs as she corrected him on names between snorts. Hannah almost froze, fearing making fun of such a large animal- er, person, was unwise, yet the man she fell in love with so many years ago seemed to come through to her rescue as always.

"Shepard is my father's name! You can call me James," the man chuckled nervously, unsure the reaction he'd get with human humor. It suddenly didn't seem very funny at all when all he received was a glare, and so he continued, "And this is my lovely wife, Hannah." Again the expression of the alien didn't crack or as much as inch in any direction, inducing the father to begin sweating. "Jane seems to have misinformed us. Your name... it isn't William King, correct?"

"It's Wrex," came a quick gruff, and only the young woman head over heels for Wrex could see to its core, harmlessness, even lightheartedness.

Hannah could only feel herself becoming _lightheaded_.

 

* * *

 

 

If only Shepard had properly warned her parents of the incoming Krogan, they could have at least made a proper meal for him. Fortunately Wrex came prepared, "the most cooked and least savage-looking food", his girlfriend recommended, though it even came to his surprise when a leg of something long dead began twitching, eliciting a squeak of disgust from the mother.

Dinner managed not to be a complete waste however. The parents found that some of the information previously mentioned was somewhat of truth. Wrex was of few words, yet they couldn't testify to how many talkative Krogan they had met in their shorter lives. His work on Tuchanka was both relieving and impressive, managing to unite the other clans in order to save their race, for which the Shepards commended him on. He had even courteously offered up some "Tuchankan delicacies" that were "edible for even humans", to which only the young Commander was willing to try.

On the downside, Wrex inevitably did happen to break a few objects by accident only, including Nana's centuries old wooden chair. James Shepard shrugged it off, mentioned how she spent her last days in it but anyone who sat in it would have also reduced it to strips of wood. Urdnot Wrex, on the other hand, explained how his father's last days were a slow death at his own hands, and how he had kept the same dagger he used to murder the Warlord. Awkward silence ineveitably ensued.

"How about we look at pictures? Wrex, you're sure to get a kick out of these!" Hannah Shepard finally tried her hand at appealing to the Krogan, cautious and fearful througout their meal of what he might do should she say the wrong thing. "I believe Krogan age quickly for their life cycles but humans are a little slower. Look, look, this is Jane as an infant. Only a few months old!" The woman waved the picture as her daughter scoffed in annoyance, feeling like a teenager once more.

"Mom, no! He doesn't want to see that put it away-" Regardless, the picture was passed to him as she groaned.

It made so little sense how expressionless a formerly intelligent species could be. So even Wrex's first burst into laughter at the picture provided a sense of pride in the mother, relief in the father, and just plain old embarrassment in the daughter. "You could play Biotiball with this thing! Ha! Shepard, look." Wrex insisted, as if the Commander hadn't been force fed her baby pictures before, and so she softly smiled at his amusement.

"B-but, Wrex. You know, something like that would kill her." James spoke up, not exactly seeing the hilarity in throwing a baby around.

The Krogan stopped laughing abruptly, striking a familiar terror in Hannah. Her husband and daughter were going to be torn apart by the alien and- "Well," Wrex started, staring into the eyes of his human girlfriend. Despite her family's patheticness and frantic personalities, he still couldn't see anything wrong, reaching up to brush some of her thick red hair behind her ear. "It wouldn't be the last time." Jane couldn't help but blush at the gesture before snickering away at his words. How romantic, she thought, and it seemed she was the only one to think so, her parents having held their breath prior.

But it was the first time they saw something more. In Wrex. Something that proved he did love Shepard with his whole heart, and simply always would. He was gentle, with her, and surely the woman had done a load of batshit crazy things herself, between fighting Reapers and Geth and Collectors and so forth. Both of the parents glanced between one another and the couple too wrapped up in each other to even notice they were being observed. Their daughter laughed about how terrified she was that her braces would rip out her teeth should she get in an accident, and the Krogan chuckled away with her, his arm entwined with hers. Their conversation slowly evolved into talk of the Genophage, and how infant Krogan could truly be used in a game of Biotiball without killing them. He spoke of the culture of adopting sons on Tuchanka, and how it'd be a privelege to do so, with Shepard especially. Sure, he'd outlive her for hundreds of years.

But Wrex, in his so very few words, clearly respected Shepard above anyone in the galaxy, and in his own, Krogan way, loved her.

Wrex was also able to make a record number amount of belches, cheered on by all _four_ Shepards ("Did anyone hear that?" "Nana's ghost, probably!" " _Jane_.") by the end of the night.

 

* * *

 

 

"Thank you."

"For what?"

Shepard stood upon her boyfriend's feet as they danced outside to avoid further destruction of Nana's former home, omnitools playing some Earthling oldies. His rougher skin would give her a few scratches to deal with later, but it was worth the time they spent so close. "For letting me be your girlfriend for a night. For helping me let go and just have fun for a night. It's always 'First Human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel, Commander Shepard of the Normandy here to save the day again'." A pause.

"Brag more why don't you." He huffed, again in that harmless way, and together they laughed softly under the dark sky of Mars. "You'll always be mine, Shepard."

"I wouldn't want it any other way, my William King."


End file.
